A Million Little Things

Photo Friday--Pool Photos

Hello All...Katie here:) When I signed up for this post about pool photos a couple weeks ago I thought I would have plenty of opportunity to take some recent shots of the kids swimming. Unfortunately here in NH it has rained 23 out of the last 30 days and summer hasn't really started around here! So I had to dig deep in my archives for some old shots to give you some examples!

We are not lucky enough to have a pool ourselves but are so fortunate that my Dad does and we spend lots of time at Grampa's pool in the summer. I highly recommend a zoom lens for pool shots so you can stay a safe distance from the water to protect your camera. My only other technical tip I really have for pool shots is to make sure you keep your shutter speed up to catch all the action shots that pools tend to bring.  I try to keep mine above 400. Luckily if it is nice enough to be in a pool then that usually means there is plenty of light to enable you to keep your shutter speeds high.

Here is one I took of my son jumping into the pool (I love shots of them jumping in)

(ISO 200 1/800 f/2.8)

My daughter from a from a different perspective (I like to change this up too)

(ISO 100 1/800 f/5)

And a classic Daddy throwing a kid in the air shot:

(ISO 100 1/160 f/8.0)

If you keep your shutter speed even higher you have a better chance of capturing water droplets which can be really fun in pool shots. I couldn't find an example at the pool so I  am cheating and using a slip-n-slide picture to show as an example:

(ISO 200 1/1250 f/2.8)

The other great thing about pools is the water can serve as a fabulous reflector and can result in some nice looking portraits. Here's a couple of examples:

(ISO 200 1/1000 f/3.5)

(ISO 100 1/250 f/3.5)

And the last tip I want to leave you with is don't forget to get a picture of the gear. Here's my daughter in her floaties and her goggles:)

Cant' wait to scrapbook this one!

NEW new new...!

Hi again?

Anyone sick of me yet?  I'm sick of me, LOL, but that's beside the point!  It seems as if each show the new stuff starts to arrive earlier and earlier.  Afterall, we still have 2 weeks to show!  I think by the time we get back we will have TONS of stuff already in stock or ready to be put in stock..American Crafts, My Minds Eye, Prima to name a few.  Sort of makes me wonder if it will be worth my trip to the land of summer heat.. (no offense to any of your Floridians, I just don't do well with heat, and I am a dry heat kind of girl) can't wait (NOT).  LOL

Any who... I've got another batch of new goodies, some brand new very cute papers from 3 bugs in a Rug just listed HERE.  Here are some samples of my fav's:

To the Rescue:

 

Spread Your Wings:

 

 There are 2 more lines and much more to see, go check it out :)

XO

Jill

Steals of the Day Links #5 (Final Day Thursday)

Good Morning

Here are your final links for the steals of the day sales

Love Elsie -- Entire Stock 80% off!

KI Memories -- Entire Stock Blowout! (this link includes love Elsie, I'm not able to separate those out so, so you may need to skip the first few pages)

Maya Road-- stock up and save!

This will be our final set of steals of the day for this sale.  Most of you have been combining orders so I thought I would give you a little info on what to do and what to expect now.  I will leave all sale prices active at least thru the weekend, so if you haven't had a chance to go through what is left pease feel free to do so.  If you are combining please leave a note in your last order placed letting me know when you are ready for shipment.  We have been pulling orders all week, for those of you that are holding you can see the progress of each of your orders when you log into your account.  If you see the status of an order in the "on hold" category that means that the order has been pulled and set aside waiting for your others to be pulled as their order #'s are reached.  Many of you that checked out with credit cards instead of paypal will notice the status indicated "not paid."  Please do not be alarmed.  I have to manually run credit card payments with that checkout method and I have decided in order to save time to process them at shipment. When you are ready for shipment I will combine all of your totals, remove or adjust shipping and charge them all in one lump sum.  

 I will continue to pull all orders in order of receipt in order to maintain fairness for stock for everyone. I want to prepare you all that even though you may place your last order today, and are ready for shipment it will be several days most likely before your order will ship. Tomorrow morning we will start on orders from July 6, to give you an idea.  Please remember that we are only a two man team this week working on this project.  We have been verifying stock, listing sale items and pulling orders constantly for days now and we promise to work as quickly as humanly possible, but please be patient with any wait in shipping as we have many many orders to ship.   To remain organized and be fair to everyone I will not be accepting rush requests for quicker shipments I apologize.  We anticipate most boxes who have requested shipment to be ready by the beginning /mid part of the new week.

If you have specific questions please feel free to email me (info@amillionlittlethings.com) thanks!

Jill

Sketch it!

Hi everyone! It's that time again! Sketch it time! Sketch it is something new that we've started here at the A Million Little Things blog. Last month we challenged you for the first time with a sketch and we were so happy that we had pretty good participation in it! We would LOVE it if we could have even more people participate this month! So PLEASE check out the sketch below, along with some inspiration from me and a couple other girls on the design team and get to creating!

Here is this month's sketch:

Here's some inspiration that we created using the sketch.

My take on the sketch:

Cardstock: Bazzill and American Crafts
Patterned paper: Bella Blvd.
Letter stickers: American Crafts
Brads: American Crafts
Stickers: October Afternoon and Scenic Route

Here's Amanda's layout:

Cardstock:  Bazzill
Patterned paper: Daisy Bucket
Rubons:  Crate Paper
Stickers:  My Little Shoebox
Journaling Spot:  Elle's Designs

And Susanna did two layouts using the sketch:

Cardstock: Bazzill

Lace cardstock: KI Memories

Patterned paper: KI Memories, Scenic Route

Brads: KI Memories

Rub on: Hambly Studios

Alphabet stickers: Doodlebug

Die cut: Daisy D’s

Patterned paper: Basic Grey, Daisy D’s, Scenic Route

Alphabet stickers: Making Memories

Bling: Heidi Swapp

Sticker: 7 Gypsies

Rub on letters:  Not sure

Isn't that sketch fun? The possibilities are endless and for participating in our challenge you could win a $25 gift voucher to A Million Little Things!! How awesome is that? :-D

E-mail your sketch to us at challenge@amillionlittlethings.com
The deadline for entering is two weeks from today.
We hope that you enjoy these challenges and that we'll see lots of our blog readers taking part in it!
Have fun and good luck! :-D

Steals of the Day Links #4 (wednesday)

Good Morning (VERY early morning to some of us :))

Here are your Wednesday Links for the blowout sale:

Magazines/Idea Books (current issues/recent release not included)

• Better Homes and Gardens
• CK Media 
• Creating Keepsakes
• Simple Scrapbooks
• Paper Crafts
• Scrapbook Trends

Daisy D's --ENTIRE STOCK MUST GO!

All Remaining GLITZ

All Tim Holtz (Grungeboard $3-$5 --regular 15-25$!)

We R Memory Keepers (excluding Tiffany's)

Select Websters Pages

Martha Stewart Punches

All LILY BEE 25% off

Thanks!

Steals of the Day Links #3 (tuesday) + New Products

Hi there

Today we have sales galore on these companies:

All in Stock Cosmo Cricket (excluding Early Bird)

Pebbles paper and Stickers Released at CHA winter 25% off

Entire Stock of Cloud 9

Selected JENNI BOWLIN items

And Some new products arrived today as well:

Sassafrass Me Likey Collection

Pebbles Lil Miss and Lil Buddy

CK August 2009

The New Basic Grey Collections including all Doilies were also restocked today.

Thanks!

Off to bed, finally, zzzzzzzzzzz!  Enjoy Tuesday!

Jill

{One Minute Monday}

Okay, okay, I know you are really coming to look at the latest 'sale of the day' features, (I don't blame you!) but humour me by taking a peek at my tip for this week... ;)  I like to make cards to have on hand when a special occasion arises and I have found this to be a versatile sentiment...  You can use it for weddings, anniversaries, or birthdays. So pull out your stash and make a few 'special day' cards to have on hand for that celebatory occasion. {Making Memories journaling tag and letter stickers, Prima flowers, KI Memories glitter brads, Bazzill cardstock}

Steals of the Day #2 Links (monday)

Hello again

Today's sale links are below:

Majority of FANCY PANTS Items, with exception of newer paper lines

Entire Stock of TERESA COLLINS

COLLAGE PRESS items (excluding newest release)

Entire store of SCENIC ROUTE (except new Garden Grove)

Remaining Gelatins Stamps $2.00

That's approx 600 more items added most 50% off and up!  Take a peek if you dare :)!

Enjoy your Monday!!

July Gallery is up!

Hi everyone! Can you believe it's already July? Where did June go?
It's also that time again for the design team gallery so please check out the July projects in the photo album on the left side of the blog called "Current Month DT Projects."

There are lots and lots of great layouts for you to look at!
The assignments this month were:

• Scrap a word - FREEDOM 
• Design Team Challenge - Scrap something yummy

We hope you enjoy this month's gallery! Please leave us a comment and tell us what you think!
As always, keep checking back because we have lots of inspiration throughout the week AND there's a great sale going on in the store!
Have a great day!

Just a Little Note..

Hello Everyone, Happy Independence Day!

I hope your getting some good deals! Just a little note, there are a few of you that have checked out and have got duplicate orders coming through.  No problem, I will just delete and restock the items, but please note that the site is running MUCH slower than normal due to traffic on it.  When you are in checkout please only click the submit order/place order button once even if it takes a bit or longer to go through.  Hopefully this will prevent double orders.

I apologize for the slower speed.  This is the reason for this sale however, to get rid of some listings and clean up the site so there is not so much slowing it down.  I appreciate your patience!

Thanks!

Jill